Monday, June 16, 2008

I had a hard time finding Quinn in his new nursery. It's a lot bigger with more babies in it. I walked in and there were four babies in one squared off area of the room, and then on the other side of a partition were another square of four babies. None of them were Quinn. I had to have him pointed out to me. He was off in the corner by himself. It's not nearly as scenic as his last spot which was near a window. But after 72 days in the same spot, I would think anything would be an improvement. He had a new nurse who showed me how to take his temperature with their instant thermometer. Then she left me to him, and conveniently left his daily chart, where she had been recording his vital signs, on top of his isolette. Evidently she isn't as concerned about the "new" hospital rule of no parents reading the chart as other nurses are. So I read it thoroughly and then got Quinn out so we could nurse. He wasn't nearly as interested tonight as he had been yesterday, so after 10 minutes of trying to get him to do anything, he got his feed through his tube. He's up to 41 ml per feed. And they bumped up the calories again, apparently not satisfied with how he was gaining. He didn't gain anything yesterday, so that may have been the last straw. There is so much added to the milk that it looks a bit sludgy. But hopefully he can pack on some weight. I would have been 37 weeks today, technically full term, and he is still just 4.5 pounds. Granted, that's a huge improvement over what he was, but he does need to put on some weight. And tomorrow's the big day for the eye exam. I'm putting all sorts of of hopeful energy into its going well so that Quinn's stay in the intermediate nursery is short. I doubt Quinn being ready to go home will happen before a transfer, but it is possible that he will go home from this hospital if tomorrow's exam doesn't show enough improvement. Let's hope it does.

2 comments:

Jan Kate Brower Arnell said...

Great to see photos of the little guy! Thanks for remembering your camera!

Kim said...

Here's to a successful eye exam...good luck! We'll be praying for you.